Warm waters deadly to Yellowstone trout

Yellowstone National Park-The sun was straight overhead,blazing in the blue sky.On the ground, the temperature cruised past 90 degrees,
mercilessly baking the meadows and great pine forests of America's oldest national park.In the Firehole River that slashes through the wild grasses and woods of Yellowstone's west side,the trout began to take notice.As the water warmed on that early July day,the levels of dissolved oxygen dropped.The fish-rainbows,with their bright crimson lateral slash,and brown trout,with their multicolored spots-began to panic.They darted up and down the river,seeking a cooling pocket.Within 48 hours,rangers and biologists would stand amid the tall grasses on the banks of one of the nation's most famous trout streams and watch in sadness as several hundred-and perhaps 1,000-big and small trout were swept downstream,the white bellies of their corpses reflecting the sunlight.It was the largest fish kill known to biologists in the 135-year history of the park.The warming of typically cold-water rivers is not unique to Yellowstone.Montana,
Idaho,Wyoming and Colorado are all caught in the throes of the heat and the drought.Colorado's Yampa River near Steamboat Springs has warmed to dangerous levels.Anglers are advised not to fish in the Yampa during the afternoon."Most climate-change models,well,all of them,show that the climate will continue to get hotter and drier,"said Steve Gunderson,director of the Colorado department of health's water quality division."That's a bad thing for fish,especially in the cold-water streams.I think it's a very real possibility that fish kills like the one inYellowstone will become more widespread. It seems like the climate changes are becoming pretty dramatic." To read more go to:
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As in the days of Noah...